A typical example of these drives is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3339311. The driver of an IGBT (Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor) as an example of switching elements is capable of changing the switching speed of the IGBT from an on state to an off state to thereby maintain a balance between reduction in surge voltages and a reduction in switching loss. For example, in the patent Publication, the IGBT has a sense terminal for outputting a sense current correlated with a current flowing through the current conductive path of the IGBT, and the driver changes the switching speed of the IGBT based on the minute current output from the sense terminal.